Document carrier envelope construction

ABSTRACT

A document carrier adapted to be carried on its bottom edge on a conveyor belt disposed at the base of a pair of defining walls of lesser height than said carrier and further adapted to be flexed about and between upstanding roller means and said belt in angular movement of said belt from between said first defining walls and adjacent similar defining walls. The carrier is composed of opposed faces sealed together at their leading and trailing edges in double spaced lines of vertical seal. Flexible stiffening ribs are disposed in the pockets formed by each of said double lines of seal whereby to prevent undesired flexing of said pocket into similar pockets traveling on carrier belts in adjacent paths formed by adjacent walls. A spaced double line of seals at the bottom edge of said carrier receives a flexible stiffening rib disposed in the pocket formed therebetween to provide the carrier with a controlled amount of lengthwise stiffness and a surface to be frictionally engaged between the conveyor belt and upstanding roller for limited flexing and providing frictional engagement requisite to freely negotiate said turns.

United States Patent [191 Tomlinson Apr. 3, 1973 [54] DOCUMENT CARRIER ENVELOPE CONSTRUCTION v [75] Inventor: Charles W. Tomlinson, Orange, Va.

[73] Assignee: Acme Visible Records Inc., Crozet,

[22] Filed: Mar. 17, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 125,176

Primary Examiner- -Joseph R. Leclair Assistant ExaminerStephen Marcus AttorneyGary, Parker, Juettner, Pigott & Cullinan [57] ABSTRACT A document carrier adapted to be carried on its bottom edge on a conveyor belt disposed at the base of a pair of defining walls of lesser height than said carrier and further adapted to be flexed about and between upstanding roller means and said belt in angular movement of said belt from between said first defining walls and adjacent similar defining walls. The carrier is composed of opposed faces sealed together at their leading and trailing edges in double spaced lines of vertical seal. Flexible stiffening ribs are disposed in the pockets formed by each of said double lines of seal whereby to prevent undesired flexing of said pocket into similar pockets traveling on carrier belts in adjacent paths formed by adjacent walls. A spaced double line of seals atthe bottom edge of said carrier receives a flexible stiffening rib disposed in the pocket formed therebetween to provide the carrier with a controlled amount of lengthwise stiffness and a surface to be frictionally engaged between the conveyor belt and upstanding roller for limited flexing and providing frictional engagement requisite to freely negotiate said turns.

2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures DOCUMENT CARRIER ENVELOPE CONSTRUCTION The present invention relates to a document or letter carriercomposed of an opposed pair of faces of flexible material adapted to be carried on its bottom edge on a conveyor belt disposed at the base of a pair of defining walls of lesser height than said carrier such as a single or multi-channel document conveyor of the type described and claimed in Welch US. Pat. No. 3,042,185. The document carrier of the present invention is further adapted to be flexed about and between upstanding roller means and said belt when the belt is partially upturned in angular movement of said belt from between said first defining walls and adjacent angularly disposed similar defining walls. 7

The opposed faces of the carrier are sealed together at their leading and trailing edges in double spaced lines of vertical seal and flexible stiffening ribs such as of nylon are disposed in the pockets formed by each of said double lines of sealwhereby to prevent undesired flexing of said pocket into similar pockets traveling on carrier belts in adjacent paths formed by adjacent walls.

A spaced double line of seals at the bottom edge of said carrier and a flexible stiffening rib such as of Mylar is disposed in the pocket formed therebetween to provide the carrier with a controlled amount of lengthwise stiffness and a surface to .be frictionally engaged between the conveyor belt and upstanding roller for limited flexing and movement requisite to freely negotiate said turns.

The document carrier may also include at its trailing edgean auxiliary upwardly open pocket formed as a continuation of the main document carrier but sealed therefrom. This auxiliary pocket is preferably of lesser heightthan the main pocket or tapers toward it.

- The objects of the invention, it details of construction, arrangement of parts and the economies thereof will be further apparent from a consideration of the following specification and I accompanying drawings,

wherein n j FIG. 1. is a fragmentary perspective view of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the document carrier envelope construction of the present invention.

FIGS is a sectionon the line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a section on line 4'4 of FIG. 2. p 7 Referring to the drawings, the reference numerals 10, 10 indicate side walls of a channel document conveyor such as in theaforesaid US. Pat. No. 3,042,185 and although two side walls are shown here the invention is particularly useful in combination with three or more side walls defining a plurality of adjacent passageways wherein envelope carriers of the present invention may be moving simultaneously, and one of the objectsof the present invention isto prevent impact or impediment of movement of the document carrier in one channel with that of an adjacent carrier in an adjacent channel. I

direction say at a right angle or less, and for this purpose one or a pair of upstanding rollers 14 on a vertical axis 15 are provided at the turn or corner at which point the upper run of the belt 12 turns in a quarter turn, and at which time the document or document conveyor 11 becomes pinched between the roll '14 and upturned portion 12' of the belt 12 and moves the document conveyor to and between an adjacent set of walls such as those at 10, 10 where the bottom edge of the document continues to ride and be carried frictionally forward on the again flattened belt 12.

The document conveyor is preferably composed of opposed sheets of transparent or translucent flexible material 16, 16 such as of polypropylene of a size generally adapted to hold a letter and is provided with an arcuate cut portion 17 by which the letters may be conveniently removed from the envelope 11.

In constructing the envelope 11 the two opposed faces 16, 16 are sealed together with a pair of spaced vertically extending lines of seal 18, 18 at the leading edge and a pair of similar vertically spaced lines of seal 19, 19 at the trailing edge. These spaced lines of seal provide pockets for insertion of a stiffening rib such as of nylon ribs 20 so as to prevent undue flexing of the pockets from one channel into an adjacent channel and interfering with movement of like document carriers in adjacent channels.

The bottom edges of the facings 16, 16 are also sealed together by spaced horizontal lines of seal 21, 21 to provide a pocket into which the stiffening rib such as of Mylar "or other flexible resilient synthetic resinous material may be inserted as at 22. i

'As previously indicated, the bottom edge of the A document conveyor ordinarily rides on the surface of the horizontally disposed belt run 12. At the turns this belt 'run 12 is given "a one-quarter twist an'dpassed around the vertically oriented roller 14, In this manner between the belt and the roller. The'clos'ed pocket ad- As shown in the drawings, the document carrier generally indicated as 11 is moved forwardly on the 'upper belt run 12 moved by suitable roll means not shown but indicated in said US. Pat. No. 3,042,185, the return run of the belt being indicated at 13. Documents conveyed in channel conveyors of the class aforesaid are sometimes desirably moved in an angular jacent thebottom edge of the carrier'provides an area to be pinched between the belt and the roller at the turns. (A plurality of documents being transported in the pocket would normally be too thick to pass readily between the belt and the upstanding roller.) The strip of plastic say for example 0,14 inch thickness'of Mylar is encased in the pocket between the seal lines'2 l, 21 to provide the carrier with a controlled amount of lengthwise stiffness but not enough to prevent the car'rier from flexing as required to negotiate the turn freely. Although notlirnited thereto, the faces of the document carrier .can be composed of a material such as polypropylene of 0.005 inches in thickness or other synthetic resinous plastic material of substantially similarthickness;

* at the edge 23, which pocket can be further welded at theintermediate line 24 and in the line 25 which tapers toward the bottom edge of the pocket. This auxiliary pocket conventionally holds material-auxiliary to that inserted in the main pocket 11 such. as folded, punched tape.

the document is conducted around the turn by passing Although I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the details thereof without departing from its scope as comprehended by the following claims.

I claim:

1. A document carrier adapted to be supported on and carried by a narrow conveyor, comprising a pair of opposed fuccs sealed together along spaced apart seal lines at their sides and bottom with the top remaining open to form a pocket having an open top, a stiff vertical support member on each side of said pocket within the sealed areas of said faces to prevent undesirable 

1. A document carrier adapted to be supported on and carried by a narrow conveyor, comprising a pair of opposed faces sealed together along spaced apart seal lines at their sides and bottom with the top remaining open to form a pocket having an open top, a stiff vertical support member on each side of said pocket within the sealed areas of said faces to prevent undesirable flexing of said faces away from vertical, and a horizontal flexible stiffening rib disposed along the bottom of said pocket in the sealed area of said faces to allow a controlled amount of flexing in a horizontal plane, the top edge of said faces having downwardly indented area to allow access to documents contained between said faces.
 2. The document carrier of claim 4 wherein an auxiliary pocket is provided extending from one of the sides of said carrier, said pocket having an open top and having a depth less than that of said carrier. 